Content at Home

It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day events of life that we sometimes loose focus of just spending time quietly together as a couple. Of course, we have some quiet evenings around the house, but there are still always things asking to be done. Dishes after dinner, picking up, laundry that just came out of the dryer, or even the temptation to just veg in front of a movie, etc...

This past week, Kyle worked a number of late nights at work and was exhausted. I decided to text him during his last long day and ask him what he desired to do that night, giving a few ideas that came to mind. I was thrilled when he picked the option of going to the Ohio waterfront for a picnic dinner. I was so excited and spent the afternoon making pasta salad, cutting a fresh watermelon, making homemade cookies, etc... to take on our picnic. We found some swings that overlooked the water and bridges and just enjoyed sitting, swinging, eating, and chatting. It was a perfect date night and way to relax!

My husband, Kyle, and I celebrated our first year of marriage today! We are so very grateful to the Lord for bringing us together and drawing us to each other. Marriage is always a learning ground and there are so many things to learn about your spouse throughout your lifetime together, and especially in that first year as you live together. Even though I have seen so much of my own sin brought out in marriage, I can still say that being married to my husband Kyle has been even better than I could have ever imagined! God has been so gracious to grant me a husband who so uniquely fits me and I fit him. Our personalities compliment each other so well and we simply love spending every day together. I am so much more in love with him today than I was a year ago and that love only deepens and grows with each day, by God's grace!


We have really sought to focus on doing things together as a couple instead of living two separate lives in the same home. We serve together at church when able, we ride to places together, even if one has to wait on the other, we go to parties together and usually stay home when the other one is unable to go, etc... We also seek to serve each other in small and big ways. Even if that just means leaving a note on the counter, or taking out the trash, or just listening patiently while the other talks about his/her day.

However, all of this is the surface to the underlying desire in each of our hearts to honor and glorify the Lord through our marriage. We seek to serve Him by serving one another. We look to Him for our guidance and strength in our marriage and bring our prayer requests and thanksgivings to Him. He alone is sovereign and the One who created and sustains marriage. Our marriage is a reflection of Him and knowing that helps us to be careful how we walk, talk, and treat each other. We really pursue keeping a short account of sin between each other and we both take the responsibility to initiate asking forgiveness of the other one when we have wronged him/her. One thing that we have found immensely helpful in our marriage is that our church celebrates communion every Sunday morning at the end of our service. It has really helped to create a healthy pattern in our marriage of talking together at the beginning of every week and confessing any outstanding sins that need to be dealt with. We can then start our week fresh, knowing that our consciences are clear between each other.

Learning how to fulfill my role as wife has been such a joy! Kyle is so patient, kind, loving, servant-hearted, wise, discerning, and easy to please, which makes my job so much fun! Yet, there are some days that it has been hard as I have learned many lessons in being self-controlled, putting my husband's needs and wants before my own, learning to serve by keeping the home clean, learning to live as two and not on my own conditions and time-frames, and realizing the impact of my responses and moods on my husband. However, I would not give anything for the lessons that God has taught me and it causes me to only love and hold my husband so much dearer!

We are certainly not perfect, we struggle much with sin, and we know that we have a lot to learn about each other and our marriage but I am so very grateful to the Lord for the grace that He has bestowed on me by giving me such a wonderful husband and how that makes my role as wife to be so fun, fulfilling, and rewarding! I could not be more happy with the life that God has given to us and I absolutely LOVE being Mrs. Roland!

This past week, on March 13th, we celebrated our 9 month wedding anniversary! The Lord has blessed us immensely during our marriage and we are so grateful to Him for His work in our lives!

We celebrated the day with a wonderful date night on Saturday. We went to Applebees for dinner then went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D at a nearby movie theater. We had so much just enjoying each other's company. We are truly best friends and love doing life together!

This past week has flown by! We had a great weekend with friends though. We enjoyed having a fun couple over from our church on Saturday night, plus another couple stopped by our apartment for a little while that evening as well. Then on Sunday we enjoyed lunch with some of the couples from our community group, and then Sunday night, while our husbands were at Manskool with church, we wives hung out and watched a movie together.

Four of our couples from our community group. L-R: Rolands, Coobs, Berhows, Richmonds
Eating at Qdoba - L-R: Jason and Jenny Coobs, Kristin and Zach Richmond, Mike Berhow


L-R: Becky Berhow, Trey Salter and Chelsea Ballou (about to be Mr. & Mrs. Trey Salter!), and us, Michelle and Kyle Roland.

Here are four of the six of us girls who hung out last night while our hubbies were at Manskool. It was a lot of fun to be together! Thanks to Whitney for having us over! L-R: Becky Berhow, Me, Amanda May, Whitney Miller. (Not shown: Kristin Richmond and Jennifer Farrior).

Here are some videos of our fun Snow Day yesterday! We enjoyed rolling down the hill behind our apartment and then we went up to the Seminary to go sledding.

Michelle Rolling Down the Hill from Michelle Roland on Vimeo.

Kyle Rolling Down the Hill from Michelle Roland on Vimeo.


Michelle Sledding from Michelle Roland on Vimeo.


Kyle Sledding from Michelle Roland on Vimeo.

Click here to see our pictures from our snow day.

So this past week I tried cooking quinoa for the first time. We had that along with our mexican style salmon. It was GREAT! Kyle even asked for a second helping! :-) Quinoa is a simple, gluten free grain, and I cooked it in vegetable stock. Unlike rice, which takes about an hour to cook, quinoa cooks in about 15 minutes! I roasted the kernels before cooking it which added great flavor to the dish. Topped off with flavorful salmon, we had a definite hit!

My weekdays have been fun and filled with "ooo's," raspberries being blown, big baby smiles, spit-up, loud burping, bottles, nap times and diapers! Yes, I love my job as a full-time nanny! Aeden is such a sweet little boy to watch and is so mild tempered! Haha...  right now my jacket is in the washer because I found a big wet spot on the back left sleeve from spit-up... how on earth did it get back there?!?! I have no idea! Of course, the black sleeve of my shirt now happily sports two more spit-up spots where Aeden decided my shirt needed some added color! :-)

Being a full-time nanny has been wonderful for me in preparing me to be a mother one day! Coming from a lifestyle of constantly going and doing, sitting around all day with a baby has been more of an adjustment than I thought! I'm learning to be creative in how I spend his nap times, while the house is quiet. I think I have definitely noticed the need for a "to-do" list for my day or else I'll waste too much time on facebook, blogs, and even reading, while he is asleep.

As to our evenings and weekends, now that Kyle is studying every night, I'm hoping to start working on organizing several different areas in our home that need constant attention. This will require a lot of discipline and creativity for me... neither one of those come naturally for me! :-) If any of ya'll know tips for optimizing small spaces, please feel free to leave me a comment! My sweet friend, Cassandra, sent me a link this morning for this blog post. I can totally relate to this gal's kitchen and I frequently do the "balancing act" of placing pots, pans, plates, etc... on the little area of the sink that she talks about! If you don't remember what our apartment looks like, here are some pictures I posted after we moved in, almost eight months ago. It'll give you an idea of the kitchen. I must say, our apartment is on it's third or fourth "look" since these pictures were taken! I love to move furniture around...

I hope that everyone is doing well. We miss our family and friends in Texas and Georgia! Hopefully it won't be too long before we can see ya'll!

So I've been wanting to blog for the last week or so but every time I thought about it, I didn't feel like I had a whole lot to write about. Everything is going well and life is finally steady... at least until school starts this week. haha!

The beginning of the new year brought some great changes to our family. Kyle and I are both enjoying our new jobs. We both love getting off work around 4:30 in the afternoons so that gives us a nice evening together,unlike our previous jobs. With school starting back this week at the Seminary, we have enjoyed spending more time up on campus this past weekend. On Friday night we enjoyed watching a Boyce Bulldogs basketball game where we got to see friends. The Bulldogs put up a good fight against the Tennessee Freewill Baptist College team. Last night I brought super up to campus and met Kyle after work and we enjoyed eating together in Founders Cafe. I love the hubbub of a new semester starting!

On Saturday night we enjoyed going to a benefit concert hosted by Sojourn and the 930 room for a ministry team in Haiti. Go Ministries International is a mission that already serves the people of Haiti and the people of the Dominican Republic. Interestingly, we found out at the concert that they had already been planning this night for four months and in God's providence, the concert fell right after the earthquake, when funds would be needed the most.

Sunday we enjoyed fellowship with our friends and family at Crossing Church. Our pastor, Dustin, started a series through the book of Nehemiah yesterday and we are excited to see this study pan out. I love that our church preaches expositionally through various old and new testament books of the bible! Our women's ministry, Bloom, that meets together once a month will be starting a new book this year. We will be going through "How People Change" by Paul David Tripp. I have heard from numerous sources that this book is great so I am very excited to work through it with the women at my church.

On the school front, Kyle is signed up to take Introduction to Biblical Counseling with Dr. Stewart Scott, New Testament Survey 1 (online) with Dr. Cook, and he is attending the Adopting for Life conference with Dr. Russell Moore and taking it as a class. All three of these classes will be great! I'm excited for him and hope to glean from his knowledge this semester! :-)

I will be taking two classes this semester through the Seminary Wives Institute (SWI). The first will be Marriage and Family taught by Mrs. Tonya York. Mrs. York is wife to Dr. Hershael York who is a Preaching Professor and Associate Dean of Ministry and Proclamation at Southern Seminary. They also serve as pastor and wife at Buck Run Baptist Church. Dr. and Mrs. York speak at the yearly Family Life Conference held on Southerns campus for SWI students and their husbands. Although I haven't attended it officially yet, I did get to sit in the sound booth one year for part of the conference when Kyle ran sound for it (back when we were dating) and they did a fabulous job addressing issues for husbands and wives. (Little did I know back then that I would be actually participating one day as a seminary WIFE!)

The book we will be using in this class is Creative Counterpart by Linda Dillow. From what I've seen of this book it looks like it will be well worth the read!

My second class will be on Hospitality taught by Mrs. Mary Mohler, wife to Dr. Al Mohler, President of Southern Seminary. After hearing Mrs. Mohler teach in my Essentials class from last semester on hospitality one evening, I am very excited to learn from her for six weeks straight on how to open our homes to serve others. She truly has had many opportunities to use her home to minister to others given the wonderful position that God has placed her family in. With hospitality being one of my favorite topics to learn about and grow in, I'm really looking forward to this class!

I believe the book we will be using in this class is Open Heart, Open Home: The Hospitable Way to Make Others Feel Welcomed and Wanted by Karen Mains.

Well, I guess I had more to say than I thought! ha! Well, I'm off to go enjoy Aedan, the baby I nanny, now that he is up from his nap.

Here in the Roland household we have candles a burning, stockings a hanging, presents under the tree, and the table set for a festive dinner together as we celebrate our first Christmas as a married couple. We are so excited about what God has done in our lives this last year and are so blessed to be together!

Growing up in the Oliver household, our tradition was to always celebrate our immediate family Christmas time together on Christmas Eve, then on Christmas day we would gather with our families and join them. Then, when my older brother, Michael, got married to his wonderful wife, our traditions began to change slightly. They would still come to my parent's house for our traditional Chinese food dinner, then open gifts between our two families, with my Dad reading the Christmas story. Then Christmas morning Michael and Lisa enjoyed celebrating Christmas with their sweet little boys at their home... then they would join us with our extended family for later during the day.

Now that Kyle and I are married... we've changed up these traditions quite a bit due to us living 900+ miles away from my family! However, this year will be very special because we are spending Christmas with Kyle's parents and we are very excited about being with them! We decided to follow in a similar tradition as my family by celebrating our own family's Christmas tonight (since we both work long days tomorrow), exchanging our gifts for each other and my side of the family, then joining the Roland family on Thursday. It so happens that my family in Texas is also celebrating their "Christmas Eve" tonight because my sweet nephew, Logan (3), is having heart surgery tomorrow morning. (More to come on that tomorrow. Please be praying for him!) So we are hoping to skype the Oliver's tonight as they celebrate together.

Well, this is just a little update about what is going on here in the 'Ville. More to come soon...

Hello everyone! I apologize for the lapse in writing. Soon after my parents left to return to Texas my computer got attacked by a virus so it's been shut down for a while. Even now, I am writing from Kyle's computer while he is gone to his guys' accountability group/bible study this morning. Someone from my church is going to take a look at my laptop this weekend and will hopefully be able to easily fix it! I'm so grateful that I have it backed up!

These last couple weeks have been really busy yet exciting. Kyle started a new job last week at the Seminary. He is working part-time there until he finishes out his two weeks left (only 3 more days!) at Sherwin-Williams. Then he will transition into full-time and on January 1st, he will step into the actual position that he was asked to fill. He used to work on campus for the Media Services department running sound and video cameras for chapel, classrooms, events, etc... He stepped down from that job right before we got married in order to bring in more hours and pay. However, he has always desired to return to that line of work if a door ever opened. Well, about 3 weeks ago his boss from the Seminary called him offering him this full-time position of a media technician (I'm not sure what his exact title will be), starting in January. He was elated! We began praying through it and waiting as his boss had to get everything ok'ed through the "big guys" on campus. We waited for about a week, praying that God's will would be done.

So here we are, exited about this new transition for our family. It is such a provision that he will be on campus for work (approx. 2 miles from our apt.), and will be able to just step out of the office and go to class during the day. This will save us so much gas money as he was driving 20-25 minutes to work everyday at Sherwin-Williams. It will also provide us with health insurance that neither one of us are currently getting at our jobs.

Well, I need to head out to work, but I just wanted to send out a little update. We are so grateful for the Lord's provision and His faithfulness... His provisions are always worth sharing about! :-)

btw... it's 21 degrees here and we have snow flurries... burr... I'm loving this winter weather!

Life has been moving ahead full force as we are wrapping up this semester of school. Kyle's classes have been going well and he's excited that this next week is his last week of class! We're also preparing for my parents to come in town a week from tonight. Woo hoo! We are so excited and haven't seen them since our wedding... 5 months ago, today!

As to an update on married life... it's GREAT!!! I would never trade it! I have learned so much about myself, my sin, life, what it means to be a supportive wife, what my biblical role is, how to care for my own home and keep it running, how to carve out time for my hubby and I to have "us" time during a school semester, and how to keep our schedule from filling up completely! We've really sought to keep life simple, and free from as much stress as possible and to just enjoy this stage of life... just the two of us!

My husband is incredible! Every day I grow to love him more and see how perfectly God has fit us together. He is such a strong leader, a wise accountant, a good steward of his resources, a humble servant (especially when it comes to helping around our apartment or helping me with a project), and a godly husband. His desire to grow in his understanding of the gospel and the role of a husband is so encouraging for me and I love to see his passion for other young husbands to do the same! I have been intrigued to watch as the Lord has really built into Kyle a deep desire for men to stand up and take on their roles as husbands and fathers; investing in their families and representing Christ to them. Kyle grows everyday in his role as husband and he works so hard to fill that role in a God-honoring way. I am blessed, beyond measure, to have Kyle Roland as my husband!

Do we fight? No. We have disagreements that need to be resolved sometimes, but we really strive to have good communication between the two of us and to honor the Lord in our responses to each other. Kyle is a consistent example to me of patience... he is so patient with me, never losing his temper or allowing his emotions to take control. If he notices that I am quiet or that something is wrong, he gently draws it out of me and we talk it through. What blessings the fruit of good, open communication brings when we practice this!

Kyle is my absolute best friend! I still would rather enjoy his company and spend time with him more than anyone else! Of course, I LOVE my time with other girls... but most nights, I'd rather be with him, enjoying his company; laughing together and talking about life and such. We still go to coffee shops to study and read. They are a highlight of our week when we can go together.

We love our church, Crossing Church, and the people who have become our new "family." Our care group is awesome and filled with many ages and life stages. Kyle is involved with an early morning (I mean EARLY... 6am) group study with some of the guys from our group every week. They are reading through the book "Manly Dominion" together and sharing in a time of accountability. Kyle has really enjoyed this time with the other 4-5 guys. A group of girls from our care group and I are just starting to meet up as well on Monday nights for a bible study on the book of Luke. We are using John MacArthur's Luke Study. I am really super excited to be studying a Gospel! This is the perfect time to start it too because the story of Christ will be fresh on our minds as we enter into the Christmas season.

As to life in general... it's going well. Kyle is still working for Sherwin-Williams selling paint and I am still working for Louisville Spinal Care at the front desk. We are grateful for God's provision through our jobs at this time and for this season! I'm still cooking a lot and enjoying my kitchen! I've also taken up sewing again recently for some Christmas gifts for a party next week. I am completely inspired again to sew! (I grew up sewing a lot.) I can't wait to start more projects!

Well, dinner is smelling good in the kitchen, so I better go put the finishing touches on it. Kyle should walk through our door any minute from work!

We love you all!

When Kyle is home studying he likes to take our guinea pig, Sydney, out to play. She's not super friendly and squeals at us when we try to take her out of her cage. However, she adjusts and I think she enjoys having some snuggle time with us.

Most recently, Kyle has been placing boxes around in a rectangle on our floor to give her secure space to run around in.

For some reason she kept sniffing the Snuggle bottles... she must have liked the smell!

Where's Sydney? I just love to watch and see where her little head is going to pop up!

For whatever reason, she really likes to perch on my shoulders and in my hair. I guess it's just a spot where she fits well.

She is a little adventuresome!... haha! But we love her!

This morning Kyle and I headed out to Starbucks for a morning study session.

After that, we headed home and rearranged our living room. Then ate lunch.
Here's Kyle pretending to be passed out on the couch.

Then this afternoon, while Kyle was at work, I headed out to try to find curtains for my kitchen for cheap. After searching different stores I walked into a store called Dee's. I'd never heard of it before but it turned out to be a big craft store. I quickly fell in love. I proceeded to buy some adorable fabric and make my own curtains by hand (don't have my sewing machine in Kentucky yet). They are not done yet, but here is what they look like so far. Oh... I also drilled the holes and put up the curtain rod... hehe... I felt so domestic!!! haha!

Now I'm off to go to "Bloom" tonight. Bloom is our Women's Ministry at church. I'm excited to see friends and hear a lady from my care group speak.

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post on Kyle leading worship for a Single's Retreat in Indiana. I also mentioned that I had the privilege, for the first time in my entire life, to accompany my husband by singing backup vocals on a song. A friend took pictures of us and we just got copies of them yesterday. I thought I'd share them with you. It was such an honor to go alongside my husband and support him as he ministered to these people!

Kyle leading worship for a breakout session...
Chit-chatting before a session...

Last night Kyle and I drove a little over an hour to Lexington, Kentucky to attend an adoption fundraiser dinner with some friends of ours. A couple from our church, Jim and Robin, adopted a precious little girl named Ella about a year ago. She was a stateside adoption through Bluegrass.
Since Kyle and I are desiring to adopt a few years down the road, they invited us and several other couples from our church to join them for this event.

It was a wonderful evening! We got to hear from several families who have adopted and also from a birth-mother and birth-father who gave their babies up for adoption and were saved in the process. It was so neat to hear what adoption is like from their point of view and the encouragement that they gave to all of us who have a desire to adopt a baby.

Here's a music video they showed us... be prepared, it may make you cry!

Everything to Me

The fundraiser was at the Fasig-Tipton Horse Farm in Lexington and it was beautiful! Here are a few random shots from the night:

Yesterday and today Kyle and I had the privilege of joining Ninth and O Baptist Church's Single's Retreat. Phillip, the Single's Pastor, asked Kyle to lead worship for the weekend. Kyle excitedly accepted the offer and has enjoyed spending time praying and thinking through the songs to sing. We arrived at the retreat grounds, Wooded Glen Retreat Center, in Henryville, Indiana yesterday and the sessions started that evening.

The theme of the weekend was "One Life, One Story"... teaching singles how to engage in personal evangelism here in the states, as well as internationally. Phillip pulled together a great team of young leaders from here in Louisville to speak. We were all very blessed by the main sessions and break out sessions. I'll be posting on them more once I've had a chance to go through my notes and pull together my thoughts.

Probably the most exciting part for me about this weekend was being there with my husband and watching him lead people in worshiping God through song. He did such a great job and I am so proud of him!!! He even asked me to sing backups on one song with him, which was so much fun to join him in his passion.

Here are a few snap shots from the weekend. I've uploaded many more on facebook if you want to check them out here:

Facebook link

I believe you have to log into your facebook account to access these pictures.

My hubby and I walking around the retreat grounds...

The backside of the retreat center... so pretty!

Some new friends we made. Adam and Andi were missionaries overseas for a couple years and are hoping to go back. We really enjoyed getting to know them.

Kyle getting ready to lead worship...

More to come from our weekend...

Here is our newest edition to our Roland home and family...

Sydney Roland (our guinea pig)

On Friday, after visiting Wooded Glen (see previous post), we decided that while we were in Indiana we should drive up to Huber Farm. Ever since we've moved to Kentucky, we've both heard about Huber Farm numerous times! People go to pick strawberries in the summertime, apples in the fall, etc... It's many, many acres devoted to farming and it's open to the public. They have a wonderful home cooked, family-style restaurant, an ice cream shop, a country store, a kids petting zoo, a winery, another store where you can buy the fresh fruits and veggies, and so on. We were quite impressed and now understand why people talk of it so highly!

We want to take our families to see the farm, so I don't want to spoil it by posting a lot of pictures... but I do want to wet your appetites for what's there!


The row of candy in the country store... one of my favorite parts!

A cute little barnyard play area for the kids.

The sign as you enter the petting zoo. I can just see my nephews loving it here! (hint, hint... wink, wink... nudge, nudge)
While we were there they were loading people up on their tractor-drawn wagons to go out into the fields to pick peaches. Then you can buy the ones you pick and take them home. How fun!
Kyle...
Me... we just had to! haha...

We have decided that we want to go back at least once a month throughout a whole year to enjoy each activity they offer each month... from winter to spring to summer to fall... a years worth of enjoyment! And it's free...

On Friday Kyle and I drove up to Henryville, Indiana to visit Wooded Glen Retreat Center where Ninth and O Baptist Church will be having their Single's Conference next month. Kyle was asked to lead worship for it, so we joined the Single's Pastor, his wife, and another lady from the church to go view the grounds.

As we drove up, we quickly fell in love with the scenery. I wanted to give a quick snapshot of where we'll be staying in a few weeks. I'm sure I'll have more pictures to post after that.

The retreat center sign. Sorry for the sunlight rays in the picture...
The covered bridge you have to cross in order to get to the retreat center. It was so fun for both of us! We'd never driven across one before.

Looking back at the covered bridge and ascending a hill.
A beautiful little pond
A deer that was grazing by the road. I can't believe it let us take this picture!
A beautiful plant outside the rooms.

More pictures to come in September after the retreat. I don't want to spoil it now!